England machine: Manu Tuilagi
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Now that the dust has settled in the northern hemisphere, Planet Rugby looks at the guys who stole the show in the final week of the Test series.
The big winners were England, who put world champions New Zealand to the sword thanks to a record 39-21 victory at Twickenham. And the Wallabies ended their tour on a high after beating Wales at the death in Cardiff.
So without further ado, here comes our offering - be sure to send in your own 15-1 team line-ups.
15 Leigh Halfpenny (Wales): Once again, Wales' Mr Consistency delivered another magnificent display, kicking Wales to within seconds of victory before he was carried off injured. Strong British and Irish Lions contender for the number fifteen jersey for next year's tour Down Under.
14 Cory Jane (New Zealand): One of the few players that stood out in an otherwise deflated All Blacks team, Jane was a constant threat to the English defence with his strength and angles of running - one of which was responsible for setting up Kieran Read for New Zealand's second try. Mention too for Wales' Alex Cuthbert.
13 Manu Tuilagi (England): New Zealand were hit by a vomiting bug in the week, but not as hard as they were hit by England's destroyer in-chief. The 21-year-old Samoan produced his best display in an England jersey, giving his team plenty of forward momentum and was instrumental in all the hosts' tries - bagging one for himself in the process.
12 Brad Barritt (England): The South African midfielder also dished out a solid 80 minutes for his adopted country - tackling hard and running strongly. Barritt's fine performance earned him his first Test try which sparked's England's eight-minute blitz, which saw the hosts cross for three tries during that time.
11 Julian Savea (New Zealand): Tough call to leave out England's full-back cum wing Mike Brown - who performed admirably - but Savea's brace can't be ignored. New Zealand's powerful left wing put his derailing team back on track soon after half-time, and his second score at the death limited the damage somewhat.
10 Owen Farrell (England): This week's listing of Farrell alongside Dan Carter on the shortlist as IRB World Player of the Year was greeted with incredulity in the rugby world, but it was the youngster who looked the most accomplished number 10 on duty at Twickenham. Having played second fiddle to Toby Flood for the most part of November, all of Farrell's confidence came flooding back (no pun intended) as he stamped his authority on the game - especially with his boot, in which he contributed 17 points.
9 Ben Youngs (England): On a Saturday where none of the scrum-halves really stood out head and shoulders above the rest, Youngs gets the nod purely for making opposite number Aaron Smith - who has had a stellar debut season playing for the All Blacks - look very ordinary indeed.
8 Wycliff Palu (Australia): This was a bit harder to choose with England's Ben Morgan and Toby Faletau of Wales both running strongly and tackling hard for their respective teams. All Blacks number eight Kieran Read never give up, but his intercept pass to Tuilagi opened the door a little wider for Palu who in the end bashed it down following his barnstorming performance at the base of the scrum for Australia. He was rather fortunate to escape a yellow card after a high tackle on Wales hooker Matthew Rees though.
7 David Pocock (Australia): A winning return for the Wallabies fetcher, who not only bossed the breakdown but carried the ball strongly throughout. Kudos to England's Chris Robshaw too after leading his side to a record win over New Zealand.
6 Tom Wood (England): A tireless display from the Saints flanker whose Trojan work-rate earned him a deserved man-of-the-match gong. England's foremost ball carrier in the back row was given plenty of opportunity to go forward and gleefully accepted the challenge of soaking up numerous New Zealand tackles on the gainline.
5 Nathan Sharpe (Australia): It's debatable whether Sharpe was the top lock over the weekend. But we just couldn't leave out the veteran playing in his last game for Australia - unless he's coaxed out of retirement once again!
4 Joe Launchbury (England): Got through a serious amount of work in 66 minutes, and never stopped working in the heat of battle. His replacement Coutney Lawes carried the batton over the finish line and was also a menacing figure in the short time spent on the pitch.
3 Dan Cole (England): Fronted up to the physical presence of the All Blacks front-row in the scrum and helped turn the screw when England were on top. Mention too for Genthin Jenkins who made his presence felt against Australia.
2 Tom Youngs (England): Good darts in the line-out and held up well in the scrum. Got through a mountain of donkey work at ruck time too, and helped England to dominate the breakdown - also ever present in England's defence effort. Has improved with each game through the November series
1 Alex Corbisiero (England): Scrummaged strongly, while the US born prop was also eager and energetic in the loose.
Compiled by Dave Morris
Comments
APV1 says...
@ passtheball - the sins of the father being visited upon the children, sort of thing is it?
Well I was once irritated by an Australian when I lived there. Does that mean I can spend the rest of my life irritating all Australians (not just those who contribute to rugby fora!)?
I remember some particularly shoddy service from an American many years ago. Does this now give me carte blanche to be rude to every American I ever deal with again?
You get my point.
Most of us weren't, "... relentless on NZ / ABs about poaching PI players - for more than a decade. The abuse was continuous and often nasty," And we're not expecting the posters on these threads to be reasonable - hopeful, perhaps, but it's unlikely considering the nature of some of them - but we expect better from the site journalists themselves.
Why? Because otherwise they leave themselves open to accusations of bias, hypocrisy and xenophobia. I'm fairly sure that most journalists wouldn't want those tags or accusations associated with them.
And of those posters who "...still go on about it when all current PI players are NZ born.", how many of them have posted on this thread?
I do see your point, but I must say I disagree with you.
Posted 13:40 04th December 2012
latin says...
dear writer,
i think you have some serious issues with regards player nationality. Yes, there are lot of people who play for an adopted country but i think you really laboring the point here.
Posted 13:38 04th December 2012
lawynd says...
@passtheball - there are berks of every nationality and colour the world over, do you honestly think a tit-for-tat approach is ever going to solve anything? As far as I've ever seen the only people who go on about poaching from the Pacific Islands are a minority of knuckle-draggers, Stephen Jones (so hardly all the press) and, oddly enough, All Blacks supporters, who get as precious about it as we are now. And you might want to acknowledge as well that whilst that hack writes for a UK paper, he is a Welshman.
@Maxgzy - If you're really going to do this, I'll take your Brad Barritt (who has held a UK passport since he was a child, by the by) and raise you Tendai Mtawarira and Brian Mujati...do you see how fruitless and moot a point it is?
Posted 13:29 04th December 2012
TVaddict says...
@Wallaroo
Cheers mate, merry Christmas to you to. Whenever I think of Christmas in Australia I think of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q
Enjoy the white win in the sun. :)
Posted 13:23 04th December 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
Good game Owen Farrell, but the term arm chair ride springs to mind. Toby will be gutted!
Nice to see Tom Wood in the side too. He was probably gutted about this time last year when Chris Robshaw became england captain because Tom was injured. Its been a while but class shines and Tom has laid down a couple of big markers against SA and NZ, A certain Mr R. Hill used to play "6" and he's the best openside the world has ever seen.
I'll be quite interested to see what Mr Gatland has in mind in June, the options are amazing! You lucky so&so Gats!
Posted 12:37 04th December 2012
heart_of_oak says...
PR - are you getting the message that people are fed up with this 'Samoan born' business ? Are you trying to get a rise out of people like Jonesy for the sake of sparking a heated, but tired and predictable slanging match ? We even have Canadians on here asking you to drop it, never mind English people.
It seems to me that by constantly feeding this nationality and birth place issue, you're only really interested in controversy. I'm beginning to wonder if you really care about the games and how the players played.
Posted 12:20 04th December 2012
Maxgzy says...
DBBrown.. All the players you listed left their countries before they played rugby. Brad played for the Sharks and was probably in the SA set up at some point. He is very South African.
Posted 11:48 04th December 2012
APV1 says...
It's good to see that I'm not the only one disappointed with PR's laziness / trolling. It's further compounded by their lack of response now.
PR Editor - any chance of some kind of response from you or your team?
Pocock and Faletau were mentioned, but not their place of birth. And quite rightly too. So why did the author of this article find it necessary to mention the birth-places of the Englishmen? And I use the word,"Englishmen" quite deliberately.
@ Wallaroo - Merry Christmas to you and yours too, my friend. Here's to a prosperous 2013, filled with good news, health and happiness. Proverbs 17:22.
Posted 11:25 04th December 2012
passtheball says...
Its seems the English are upset about the mention of poached players in their team. Maybe you could have thought of that when your press, fans and commentators were relentless on NZ / ABs about poaching PI players - for more than a decade. The abuse was continuous and often nasty, especially from England. Some PR posters still go on about it when all current PI players are NZ born.
Sorry guys but .... If you hand it out you have to take too. What goes around etc...
Posted 11:09 04th December 2012
carpelone says...
Wallaroo.
Happy Christmas to you and your family, you are a good man.
Posted 10:51 04th December 2012
sanka69 says...
Would be nice to get a response from PR regarding their apparent Xenophobia with the comments already made on here??
Posted 09:41 04th December 2012
grannyluvsdub says...
Come on PR, you've been asked to explain yourselves re: the one-eyed reporting...
Posted 06:52 04th December 2012
Trinats2 says...
Take a photo, never seen that many POMS in team of the week, even if some are from elsewhere.
Pocock is back !
Posted 02:57 04th December 2012
Wallaroo says...
Based on the final games played, a fair and just selection.
Anyway that's it for 2012. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. Remember to make the Lord that masterminded Christmas the master of your mind. Romans 12:2
God bless you all.
Posted 02:49 04th December 2012
ben7 says...
Mike Brown and Alex Goode should be there too
Posted 23:00 03rd December 2012
Lucasrg says...
Leigh Halfpenny is lengend! he always put his body beyond the hurdle. Great commitment, it's not even the first or second time he got unlucky while tackiling. he really doesn't care of his own body. Pure dedication, and a fantastic kicker, ok he missed one but still...a great player. Whish him well and a speedy recovery.
Posted 19:56 03rd December 2012
DBRowan says...
Really? I swear in every article PR write that involves an England player who isn't 100%, multi-generation English, they bring up they were born somewhere else. Have you listened to Manu talk? The lad has as thick and a dumb sounding English accent as you can get. US born Corbisiero? He moved to England when he was 4! PR doesn't go on about US born Ronan O'Gara, Papua New Guinea born Genia, or Zimbabwe born Pocock. I wouldn't want them too cause it's dumb, those players are so obviously Irish/Australian!
I can understand with someone like Barrit, Hartley or Flutey, but drop it with some of the other lads PR. How often did you refer to Simon Shaw as a Kenyan lock. To quote the Duke of Wellington, "just because you were born in a stable does not mean you are a horse". I wasn't born in Canada, but I identify as Canadian, my Canadian passport is the only passport I have.
Posted 19:10 03rd December 2012
kybone says...
Whats with the obvious attempts to point out that Tuilagi, Barritt, and Corbisiero weren't born in England? Why isn't Pocock refered to as the Zimbabwean? Of course!...England beat the AB's this weekend, so we can't knock the performance. We'll have to roll out the none English players drivel again.
Posted 18:13 03rd December 2012
APV1 says...
I'm pleased to see so many English players in the line-up but, not having seen the other games, don't know if we deserved that many. Surely there were some other outstanding players from other teams..?
That said, the English players did beat NZ, the best team in the world. So they should take what's offered and say thank you graciously.
The shame of the article is the author's need to mention some "nationalities" but not others.
Was it necessary? No - completely irrelevant.
Was it fair to single out some and ignore others? No - all or nothing. Nothing would be preferable,.
Was it accurate? Technically, it probably is. Although their omissions make the article slant.
Such a shame that PR wants to feed the trolls on one hand, yet berates people for doing the same on the other.
Disappointing, PR, you should be better than this.
Posted 17:31 03rd December 2012
bignoel says...
Who wrote this article?
Tuilagi is a "21 year old Samoan"
Barritt is a "South African midfielder"
Corbisiero is a "US born prop"
They are all England players - get your chip off your shulder and move on.
I notice that Pocock is not called a "Zimbabwean flanker". Why is that? Obviously it is only for players playing in a white jersey that the author feels that they have to mention where they were born.
Posted 17:24 03rd December 2012